Kentucky has close to 300 nursing homes filled with a generation of Kentucky’s beloved, aging residents. Nursing home administrators are obligated to hire qualified caregivers who meet the state’s certification and training requirements. All elder-care facilities in Kentucky and elsewhere have a legal duty to provide skilled, compassionate care to their elderly residents. Sadly, nursing home abuse is more common than you’d think, including the kinds of insidious abuse that don’t leave visible marks and may go unrecognized by an abused resident’s visiting loved ones.
Psychological abuse may not leave physical wounds, but it has a devastating emotional and physical effect on an elderly person, sometimes leading to cognitive decline, diminished life quality, and wrongful death.
How Common Is Psychological Abuse In Nursing Homes?
Family members of elderly loved ones seek the best possible nursing homes within the family’s financial abilities to provide care when their loved one can no longer reside alone or their care needs exceed the family’s ability. Although we’d all like to think every nursing home provides the highest quality care and treats aging residents with the kindness and respect they deserve, a shocking number of nursing home residents are victims of abuse.
According to a survey of nursing home staff members, 81% reported witnessing emotional abuse take place against residents. A further 40% admitted to at least one behavior that constituted emotional or psychological abuse in the past year. In another study surveying over 2,000 nursing home residents, 44% reported that they’d suffered abuse.
What Are the Signs of Psychological or Emotional Abuse in Nursing Homes in Kentucky?
Psychological or emotional abuse is typically harder to recognize than physical abuse, yet it can have damaging impacts on the resident’s physical health as well as their emotional well-being. Because it doesn’t leave bruises or broken bones, even the most caring family members may miss signs that an elderly loved one is enduring emotional abuse in their nursing home. Family members should watch carefully for any of the following symptoms of psychological or emotional abuse:
- Sudden or gradual withdrawal from loved ones and social activities
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Anxious behaviors such as nail-biting, hair twisting or pulling, picking at sores or scabs, rocking, or thumb-sucking
- Weight loss
- Loss of appetite
- Loss of interest in personal appearance or hygiene
- Reluctance to speak in front of caregivers
- Exhibiting non-specified fears
- Diminished self-esteem
- Self-harm
- Talk of death or suicide
If a nursing home resident acts fearful around one or more caregivers or a fellow resident and/or displays any of the above behavioral changes, their family members should speak to them frankly in private and ask them about their care and treatment.
What are Psychologically Abusive Behaviors in Nursing Homes?
Before looking for signs of nursing home emotional abuse or asking an elderly loved one about their potential psychological abuse, it’s important to understand what types of behaviors are emotionally or psychologically abusive. Emotional abuse in nursing homes includes any of the following behaviors:
- Yelling or shouting at a resident
- Making belittling or disparaging comments
- Mocking disabilities
- Name-calling
- Isolating them from others
- Giving a resident the silent treatment or refraining from answering them or acknowledging their presence
- Talking badly about the resident loudly to other staff or residents to ensure the resident hears the disparaging comments
- Bullying or badgering
- Purposely delaying food, water, or bathroom assistance
- Hiding personal items or taking them away as “punishment”
- Talking to a resident as though they were a child
- Playing “mind games” such as telling a resident they’ve already eaten their lunch when they haven’t, or that it’s only been ten minutes when it’s been an hour. These gaslighting behaviors are psychological abuse meant to induce disorientation or confusion
None of the above emotionally abusive behaviors leave visible scars but in the fragile elderly, they can cause negative consequences to health, quality of life, and lifespan.
Resident-on-Resident Psychological Abuse
Emotional abuse in Nursing homes doesn’t always come from staff members or caregivers. In some cases, a resident may experience psychological abuse from another resident. Bullying, badgering, stalking, and other forms of resident-on-resident abuse should never be tolerated in the nursing home environment. Caregivers have the responsibility to protect residents in their care from other residents.
Signs of Nursing Home Psychological Abuse Vulnerability
No one is immune to emotional abuse in nursing homes in Kentucky or elsewhere. Even the strongest, most independent people in their younger years may fall victim to abuse when they age and suffer physical and cognitive decline. However, studies show that some categories of nursing home residents are more likely to experience emotional or psychological abuse than others. Signs that your elderly family member may be more susceptible to this type of abuse include the following:
- They are female: over 64% of nursing home abuse victims are women
- They’ve suffered previous abuse or past trauma: studies show that victims of trauma or abuse are more likely to suffer further abuse, possibly because they believe they deserve the treatment or because they are less likely to speak up for themselves against abuse
- Residents with cognitive decline, dementia, or Alzheimer’s disease: residents with these disorders are more likely to unintentionally invoke exasperation or frustration in caregivers, sometimes leading to all forms of nursing home abuse
- Those of lower socioeconomic status: most likely due to lower quality care in Medicare or Medicaid-funded facilities or because caregivers don’t perceive them as worthy of respect
No one deserves psychological, physical, or emotional abuse, least of all the vulnerable elderly who deserve to live out the remainder of their years in comfort with kindness and compassion from those entrusted with the care.
What Can I Do If I Suspect My Elderly Loved One Has Suffered Emotional Abuse in a Kentucky Nursing Home?
When an elderly family member suffers nursing home abuse in Kentucky they and their loved ones have a right to seek compensation, accountability, and justice through a compensation claim or lawsuit against the facility. If you suspect your loved one has suffered psychological, physical, sexual, or financial abuse in a nursing home, report the abuse to the local law enforcement, your local ombudsman program, the Kentucky Attorney General’s toll-free tip line at 1-877-ABUSE-TIP, and the Adult Protection branch of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Then contact a nursing home abuse attorney in Louisville who can help.